Pants-type disposal diapers having a waist opening at the top end and a pair of leg openings in the lower portion have conventionally been used as one type of absorbent article for receiving body waste discharged from a wearer. In pants-type disposal diapers, a waist elastic member along the edge of the waist opening is provided in front and rear parts located on the front and back sides of the wearer. Leg elastic members along the edges of the pair of leg openings are provided in a crotch part located between the front and rear parts. Furthermore, intermediate elastic members disposed between the waist elastic member and the leg elastic members in the vertical direction are provided in the front and rear parts.
In a pants-type disposal diaper disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-38133 (Document 1 ), a diaper main body includes an inner sheet and an outer sheet, and an elastic member for forming waist gathers and an elastic member for forming body gathers are joined in a stretched state between the inner sheet and the outer sheet. An absorbent is joined to the inner side of the diaper main body, and both longitudinal ends of the absorber are covered with an end-holding sheet in a region where the elastic member for forming body gathers is disposed. In the disposal diaper of Document 1 , in the region where the elastic member for forming body gathers is disposed, a two-layered region constituted by the inner sheet and the outer sheet is disposed on the upper side of the end-holding sheet so that dampness around the waist can easily escape to the outside.
In a pants-type disposal diaper disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-247009 (Document 2 ), an elastic ribbon is attached to the opening around the waist. The elastic ribbon is formed by folding a nonwoven fabric in two to sandwich a stretchable elastic member. The elastic ribbon is joined to sandwich both longitudinal ends of a laminate of an absorbent main body and an exterior member in a unjoined portion of the end of the twofold nonwoven fabric.
When wearing a pants-type disposal diaper, the wearer usually inserts his/her legs into the leg openings and then pulls the disposal diaper up while grasping portions around the waist opening. In the disposal diaper of Document 1 , however, the elastic member for forming waist gathers is disposed in only the area where the outer sheet is folded, and no elastic member is disposed in the joining portion between the folded portion of the outer sheet and the inner sheet. Thus, the folded portion of the outer sheet and the inner sheet may be delaminated from each other or the area around the joining portion may be damaged when the disposal diaper is pulled up. In the disposal diaper of Document 2 , the elastic ribbon may become detached from the absorbent main body and the exterior member when the disposal diaper is pulled up.